(NPR) want(s) to hear about your favorite summertime memories in just three lines, haiku style…"
The next Pokemon Go is Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (video link). which will be released this Friday. I doubt my phone will be able to run it. The tech looks like a step forward in the AR gaming experience, and the game appears to be deeper and more "game like" than Pokemon. I hope they have all the bugs worked out, because I see a lot of people being frustrated with the game play, and if the game itself has problems, then it won't really take off too well.
"Whale watching is generally regarded as innocent fun. Unlike an aquarium park, whale watching boats take you to see majestic animals that remain free in their natural habitat… But when it comes to marine mammals that are already struggling to survive, are the boat-based watching tours really harmless?" Loved to death. Also there's more than sightseeing tours and the decline of chinook salmon that are pressuring the resident whales.
Dog sledding on water. "Rapid melt and sea ice with low permeability and few cracks leaves the melt water on top." We're boned.
Welcome to the fucking future. "Yesterday on Twitter, Samsung's US support team reminded everyone to regularly—and manually—virus-scan their televisions." (Grokked from John)
"Texas is now among more than a dozen states that have cracked down on the practice of surprise medical billing… Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed legislation Friday shielding patients from getting a huge bill when their insurance company and medical provider can't agree on payment." Wut?! But it won't go into effect until September of 2020.
"A pharmacy warned the Food and Drug Administration that it found a chemical believed to cause cancer in a widely used blood pressure medication, according to a filing from the federal agency."
"American authorities seized 16.5 tonnes of cocaine worth more than $1bn from a ship in Philadelphia in one of the largest drug seizures in US history, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday." What we really need to do is start-up a Fair Trade coop for cocaine, like coffee (it's a joke).
Truth in game reporting? "An anonymous fan edited out shots, scenes and characters in a 'defeminized' version (of Marvel End Game) circulating now on an illegal streaming site." I can't imagine being so terrified of things like women being strong and capable or men showing emotions. What snowflakes these idiots are.
"One of the U.S. military’s largest private-industry landlords falsified maintenance records, Reuters found, helping it secure incentive fees as families awaited repairs. The company’s actions, a former employee said, were akin to 'bank robbery at a corporate level.'" Repeat after me, privatization of essential services never saves money, never improves service, is only corporate welfare.
"The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million globally last year - the highest number in the UN refugee agency's almost 70 years of operations." It's almost like there's a worldwide migration happening.
Mitt Romney believes there should be some sort of reporting mechanism in case a campaign is approached by a foreign power. It's called the fucking FBI, Mitt. Call the FBI. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"'I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,' McConnell said. 'We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African American president.'" Oh, well, at least that settles it then. (looks at Cleveland's housing map and notices that it still pretty well conforms to the old Red Line map) Hey Mitchel, remember when you posed in front of a confederate battle flag and shook the hand of a well known racist. You were grinning ear to ear you weasel. (Grokked from Chip Dawes)
"Leonard Pozner, whose 6-year-old son was killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has been battling against conspiracy theorists for years, and on Tuesday he scored a victory against deniers who claim that the shooting that left 20 first-graders dead never happened." Small steps.
"Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of a 'deliberate, premeditated execution,' a United Nations special rapporteur has concluded in the first independent investigation into his death." You're shocked, I can tell.
"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts’ findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s civil war, according to four people familiar with the matter." But we're going to put Sudan back on the list. Sudan which is aiding the Saudi coalition in prosecuting the war in Yemen. "The State Department said at the time that while the use of child soldiers was 'abhorrent,' it was still in 'technical compliance with the law.'" Well good, otherwise we wouldn't be able to sell them all that military equipment the president keeps talking about. (Grokked from Chip Dawes)
How goes Brexit? "However, Boris Johnson - who has pledged to take the UK out of the European Union on October 31 without a withdrawal deal - came under pressure in the BBC discussion over tax-cut pledges and comments that have earned him a reputation as reckless."
How go the Trade Wars? "In a little known fact, Beijing has over the past year lowered duties on goods from countries that compete with America, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics… Such a move by China has placed American firms at a 'considerable cost disadvantage,' said PIIE researchers, who include notable trade expert Chad P. Bown."
"(Cancer researcher Xifeng Wu's) resignation, and the departures in recent months of three other top Chinese American scientists from Houston-based MD Anderson, stem from a Trump administration drive to counter Chinese influence at U.S. research institutions. The aim is to stanch China’s well-documented and costly theft of U.S. innovation and know-how. The collateral effect, however, is to stymie basic science, the foundational research that underlies new medical treatments. Everything is commodified in the economic cold war with China, including the struggle to find a cure for cancer." The collateral damage is spreading.
"President Trump says he and Chinese President Xi Jinping 'will be having an extended meeting next week at the G-20 in Japan.'" When you can't get the big wins, lower the bar to ground level and get praise for walking over it. No so sure about this "art" of the deal thing. Also the president still doesn't know how tariffs work.
"'We'd love to make shoes in the United States,' Steve Madden CEO Ed Rosenfeld told NPR. 'It's very hard to envision a scenario where we'd make the types of products that we make, at the prices that we make them, in the United States.'" He left unsaid, "and pay our executives at the same level they are now."
"President Donald Trump, asked if he still wants to demote Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, told reporters Tuesday, 'Let’s see what he does.' Trump’s remarks came a day before the Fed was set to announce its next decision on interest rates."
"Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, putting the breaks on a month-long rally, as investors waited for the Federal Reserve’s latest decision on monetary policy."
"Ronald Reagan's former budget director, David Stockman, calls Art Laffer 'the greatest Fake Economist to ever come down the pike.'… Laffer helped popularize the notion that tax cuts pay for themselves through faster economic growth… It almost never works out in practice. But Laffer and his namesake curve remain darlings of Republican politicians… On Wednesday, Laffer will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation's highest civilian honor — from President Trump." This is the person who is almost totally responsible for the deficit and debt being so high. It's his philosophy that has driven conservative economic wet-dreams since Reagan and most dramatically in Kansas. But conservatives think if they just clap hard enough, it'll eventually prove true.
The hollowed out government is reflected in the president's cabinet. "Instead, Trump has a Cabinet by default, with many of its members simply being the last person standing after others pulled out of the running, declined the president’s offers or couldn’t get through their confirmation hearings." With most administrations there are people who are willing to air their dirty laundry just for the chance of serving. Not with this administration, and there's been a fuck-ton of dirty laundry exposed anyway.
"The Trump administration announced Monday it is sending an additional 1,000 American troops to the Middle East after it accused Iran of orchestrating attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. The Defense Department said the troops would be deployed for 'defensive purposes' and, NPR reports, would primarily consist of intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, or ISR, as well as force protection and engineers. The increase in troop levels is part of a more general, though still modest buildup that began last month after another series of attacks on ships in the region that the U.S. similarly suspects is Iran’s doing." So. Much. Winning.
"The Trump administration and its domestic political allies are laying the groundwork for a possible confrontation with Iran without the explicit consent of Congress — a public relations campaign that was already well underway before top officials accused the Islamic Republic of attacking a pair of oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman." It's time to end the authorization for use of military force of 2001.
The War Whisperers. On the Media Podcast with "Heshmat Alavi, an Iranian commentator, has been portrayed as a courageous dissident with a broad constituency and rare insight into the inner workings of the Iranian theocracy. His columns have been printed in Forbes, The Diplomat, The Federalist, Voice of America, The Daily Caller and The Hill. And his analysis, such as his assertion that Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran pumped money into the mullah's military budget, has been cited by the White House to justify leaving the agreement. But what if...he doesn't actually exist?" Heshmat Alavi is the Ahmed Chalabi of the Trump administration. Also, the MEK shows up again. It's an organization that John Bolton has a long history with, including meeting with and making paid speeches in front of before GW Bush went to war in Iraq.
"The White House is arguing that former aide Hope Hicks is 'absolutely immune' from being compelled by Congress to testify about her time working in the Trump administration, in an effort to limit her closed-door interview Wednesday." Yeah, that's not an actual thing.
"To a packed Orlando arena Tuesday night, Trump referenced Hillary Clinton more than his potential 2020 opponents. He ripped into the polls, the 'witch hunt,' the 'hoax,' the 'phony dossier,' and the Democrats who don’t want to move on from the Mueller report. He listed his claim of accomplishments on jobs, conservative judges and military spending that he said are overlooked by the media." Well, here's one thing I agree with. The media really hasn't been showing just what assholes Trump and McConnell have been putting into lifetime judgeships.
"Yet in a very real sense, Trump has been campaigning for reelection since the very first day his entered the Oval Office and filed his reelection papers. This has allowed his campaign to quietly amass huge sums of money that his team has already been spending, particularly on social media… Moreover, the president never stopped holding rallies such as the one in Orlando, specifically designed to rally his most loyal supporters and boost his ego. Reuters pointed out Tuesday’s event was Trump’s 60th political rally since taking office." One trick pony is gonna work that one trick.
No comments:
Post a Comment